From Crackpot to Despot: Top 10 Nadine Dorries Quotes

Politics is a melting pot of colourful characters, oddballs and eccentrics. From the Posadists’ combination of Trotskyism and ufology to Lembit Opik’s obsession with apocalyptic Armageddon, it is the weird and the wonderful which make politics fascinating.

Problems arise, however, when the carnival of crackpots take over the asylum. The United States already has its fair share of mainstream nutters – from President George W. Bush to the horrifying Tea Party – but Britain is in hot pursuit. The current peculiar pin-up is Nadine Dorries – Sarah Palin’s bosom buddy and reactionary protégé – who has grabbed the headlines this week in her quest to restrict women’s access to abortion.

Dorries’ growing influence and exposure makes her a fearsome and frightening political beast. But don’t take my word for it; here are some of her most dubious, unfounded and reprehensible soundbites.

Dorries on God
“My faith tells me who I am. It tells me why I am here. It tells me who is with me while I am pursuing my goals. I sometimes think if I didn’t have my faith, who would I be? How would I live my life? My faith constantly gives me my reference point. I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did... I am just a conduit for God.” (War Cry, 2 June 2007)

Dorries on Pro-Life
“The public takes little notice of those who want to abolish abortion. They are dismissed as extremists. If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles.... My view is that the only way forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit... saving some lives is better than saving no lives at all. I hope pro-lifers will come to share my view that some progress is better than no progress.” (War Cry, 2 June 2007)

Dorries on Abortion
“When the operation was over, baby Samuel, at 21 weeks gestation, put his hand through the incision in the uterus and grabbed hold of the surgeon’s finger, a gesture which was apparently met with a huge amount of emotion in the operating theatre... In the UK we are aborting babies just like this and older every single day.... Little Samuel made his case from within the womb in a way which none of the shrill late abortionists will ever manage.” (The Hand of Hope, Nadine Dorries’s blog, 19 March 2008)

Dorries on All-Women Shortlists
“Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided.” (Conservative Home, 21 October 2009)

Dorries on Cannabis
"They startled me when they told me that the cannabis that teenagers are smoking now... is actually 50 times more potent than it was even a year ago... It only takes the teenager one 'spliff' or one 'joint' or whatever they refer to it now to smoke and they will never reach their full academic potential, because it is so dangerous..." (Any Questions, BBC Radio 4, 3 June 2011)

Dorries on Twitter
“Do you know of anyone who has Tweeted more than 35,000 times in less than six months? If so, email my office and let me know. Or, better still, if it's someone you know is on benefits, contact the Department for Work and Pensions.” (Twitter Obsession, Nadine Dorries’ blog, 30 September 2010)

Dorries (via Twitter) on Burglars’ Human Rights
“When you break into someone’s house to do harm, you leave every right you have at the door.” (Nadine Dorries’ Twitter, 31 January 2010)

Dorries on Sex Education and Child Abuse
“If a stronger ‘just say no’ message was given to children in school, there might be an impact on sex abuse. A lot of girls, when abuse takes place, don’t realise until later that that was wrong because sex is so common in society... I don’t think people realise that if we did empower this message into girls, imbued this message in school, we would probably have less sex abuse” (The Vanessa Show, 16 May 2011)

Dorries on Sarah Palin
"I think Sarah Palin is amazing. I totally admire her." (New Statesman, 30 September 2010)

Dorries on Truth
"My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." (The Guardian 21 October 2010)

So, by her own admission, Nadine Dorries is inclined to replace one fact with another. Or ‘lying’ as most people call it. 70% of what she says is fiction and 30% is fact. Judging by the quotes above, it’s also 100% bullshit. With the growing media attention she's receiving, it's also dangerous bullshit.